Small plane makes emergency landing on Southern State Parkway near Route 109 in E. Farmingdale

A single-engine plane with two people on board made an emergency landing Tuesday on the Southern State Parkway in East Farmingdale as it was returning to nearby Republic Airport, authorities said.

The Piper Cherokee landed about 11:45 a.m. near the eastbound ramp of Exit 33, closing that part of the parkway for several hours. The two occupants were transported to a hospital for evaluation, State Trooper Brittany Burton said. 

Neither the occupants' identities nor their conditions were immediately available late Tuesday.  

The plane took off at 9:56 a.m. from Republic on a course toward the North Shore. It flew in circles numerous times, including above Cove Neck, Oyster Bay and Huntington Bay, and eventually headed back toward Republic, according to the website FlightAware.com.

It reached altitudes of 2,000 feet.

The cause of the emergency landing is under investigation, but the plane appeared to have an oil leak after an initial evaluation, Burton said. 

It's at least the third crash of a plane approaching Republic since 2022. 

Last March, a single-engine plane preparing to land at Republic crashed in a North Lindenhurst neighborhood, killing one person on board and critically injuring two others.

In November 2022, a fixed-wing Beech B-60, also bound for Republic, developed engine trouble and crashed into a row of gravestones at Beth Moses Cemetery in West Babylon. The pilot and a passenger escaped with minor injuries.

Several hours after the plane came down Tuesday, it remained on the side of the parkway, its right passenger door open and damage visible toward the tail. Crews towed the plane to a restricted area in the Modern Aviation section of Republic where a handful of people appeared to be inspecting the aircraft late Tuesday afternoon.

It's a fixed wing single-engine plane owned by Aptum Aviation Inc., of Hicksville, according to public records. A man who answered the phone Tuesday belonging to the plane's owner said he couldn't talk.

Bay Shore resident Jason Campbell's dashboard camera recorded the plane as it landed. The video shows the view from Campbell's front windshield as he travels on the Southern State near Exit 32. The Piper suddenly comes into view in the opposite direction, narrowly missing trees and at least one vehicle as it appears about to land before passing out of view.

“I knew it was close to the airport, but that wasn’t where we should be for the plane to be that low,” Campbell said. “I saw it gliding down. I couldn’t tell where it was going to land. Then I saw it was heading toward the opposite side of the highway.”

Recorded cockpit radio transmissions captured the final moments before the Piper landed, which to Campbell, look relatively smooth considering the circumstances.

The radio call from the plane said: “667 engine failure, going down on the highway.”

“If you need to go onto the highway, that’s fine,” came a response, apparently from an air traffic controller. “If you can make it to the runway, that's cleared as well.”

Another pilot radios in, describing the scene once the plane was on the parkway: “It looks like he just got up on Exit 33, and it looks like his wing hit a pole but it looks like they are getting out.”